


Our Happily Ever After

by f0rever15elf



Category: The Mentalist
Genre: F/M, Food mention, Pedro Pascal - Freeform, Pining, Swearing, alcohol mention, slight angst
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-22
Updated: 2020-10-22
Packaged: 2021-03-09 00:33:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,816
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27145261
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/f0rever15elf/pseuds/f0rever15elf
Summary: You grew up with Marcus, and loved him for every second of it until life forced you apart. When one day you bump into a man you could swear was him at the local cafe, you don’t realize your life is about to change forever.
Relationships: Marcus Pike x Reader, Marcus Pike x you
Comments: 2
Kudos: 18





	Our Happily Ever After

He was your best friend, your first love. He had the sweetest smile and the softest laugh. He cared for others far beyond himself and would give the shirt off his back at the drop of a hat. And he looked at you like you had hung the moon. Marcus Pike, the best human you had ever known. Your high school sweetheart.

Your relationship with Marcus goes back as long as you can remember. You’d attended the same schools since Kindergarten, and he had always been so sweet. Your parents were friends, so you were always around one another. Come Junior High, he was asking you as his date to the mixers and in High School he was asking you to the dances, matching your dresses with his tie as best he could before fumbling to get your corsage on your wrist with shaky hands. You couldn’t imagine a life without Marcus. So when you were forced into one, it very nearly broke you.

College sees the end to many a high school relationship, the distance just not something that young lovers find themselves capable of handling. You had thought that you and Marcus would be different, that the distance would mean nothing to you. Moving across the country from LA to Washington D.C., however, proved too much even for the two of you. Being so far from home, you couldn’t visit even remotely as much as you would have liked, and the same went for Marcus. School swamped you both, and slowly the late night phone calls grew fewer and farther between. Eventually, they stopped all together, followed by the sweet texts you sent almost daily. Your relationship with Marcus faded into nonexistence, leaving a hole in your heart that you ached desperately to fill, but could never seem to.

And so, you resign yourself to living alone, forgoing the dating apps that your girlfriends insisted you try and declining the blind dates they begged to set you up on. You feel content in your solitude, spending the nights tending to your apartment plants and playing with your cat before settling in with some tea to look over the documents and reports for the upcoming EPA meetings. It’s by no means an exciting life, but it’s a comfortable one. One that allows you to simply exist as you are, without calling to light the pain of missing the love of your life.

~~~~

The life of Marcus Pike after you left for college across the country was not an easy one. As the calls slowed and texts stopped, he found himself trying to fill the void you left in his life and his heart, eventually finding another woman to date. A woman who smiled and for a moment her eyes looked like yours. A woman who laughed and he would hear just a shadow of the music of your voice. But she wasn’t you, she didn’t know him the way you knew him, and he didn’t know her the way he knew you. They grew apart, and the marriage dissolved, leaving Marcus alone again.

He picked up a job pretty soon out of college, working with the Fine Arts Department of the FBI, and focusing on the art he loved was a decent enough distraction from you and from his failed marriage. He met another woman there, Teressa Lisbon, and decided it was time to put himself out there again. You were gone from his life, and he needed to accept that. Teressa intrigued him. She was strong and independent, hurting over the loss of a lover just as he was. She was beautiful and bold and he found himself desperately clinging to her to feel _something_ like what he used to know.

And then the transfer notice came. Washington D.C. _Are you still there,_ he wonders, if only briefly before shaking the thought from his head. He was with Teressa, and they were happy. Sticking his neck out to her, he asks her that fateful question. _Come with me._ He could see it plain as day, that future with her. A life, a future, a family if she wanted it. Together in D.C., he could get her the transfer order she needed. Until it all came crashing down when Patrick Jane came sauntering back in, and at the drop of a hat she was back in Jane’s arms, and Marcus was alone once again. Perhaps this was his destiny, the single life. He would learn to be content in his solitude as he adjusts to his new life in D.C. Time for a new start.

~~~~

“How the _hell_ am I supposed to justify this kind of overhead cost?!” You snap into your ear piece as you make your way to the coffee shop just down the street from your apartment. “First you give me half the usual time to go over these documents, then you decide to pull this shit on me?! Are you insane?! The heads will _never_ give us the go ahead on this. If you want to have a prayer of hiring _anyone_ in FY 21 you _need_ to get your head out of your ass and recognize that we are operating on a budget about one third of what you seem to think we are!” You yank the door to the shop open, storming in to get in line for your usual as your boss blabbers on the phone about how much he _needs_ the requested overhead and you’re ready to yank your earpiece out and chuck it into the coffee grinder.

“Look, Jed, I hear you, I do. Now you need to hear me when I say it _isn’t fucking possible._ Figure something else out, and get back to me. Bye.” You tap the earpiece, silencing your boss and pointedly ignoring the next call as he tries to get you back on the line. You flash the barista a smile as you order, dropping a few dollars in the tip jar before tucking yourself in the corner to wait, pulling up the contact of your partner to let her know exactly what was going on. You don’t notice those who are coming and going, the little shop as active as ever. When your name is called, you grab your cup and make your way out, lost in the tirade you’re having with your partner. You’re so involved, you don’t notice the suited man who steps in front of you, bumping into him. You gasp as you just barely manage to save your coffee, flashing him an irritated look before apologizing and stepping outside.

You’re half-way to work when you freeze, your brow furrowing. That… couldn’t have been…. You turn on your heel, damn near sprinting back to the coffee shop. Flinging the door open, your eyes scan the patrons, your heart sinking in disappointment when you don’t see him. Taking your leave once more, you shake your head with a sigh. Were you really so desperate and lonely that you had started hallucinating the only man you had ever loved?

~~~~

Marcus’ brow is pinched in thought as he makes his way in to work, coffee in hand. His thoughts are wrapped around the woman who had bumped into him in the coffee shop with the irritated look on her face. For a moment, just a moment, he thought it was you. But that was ridiculous. No way you would have stayed around here after graduation, you hate the cold. He must be hallucinating seeing you as his heart attempts to deal with being broken for the third time.

He tells himself he was being ridiculous, that he hadn’t actually seen you there, but still he found himself constantly back at that little coffee shop, looking for the woman with the irritated face. He just needed to make sure. He needed to be certain it _wasn’t_ you. God only knows what he would do if it _was._

The weather had started to get colder in the city he now calls home, and iced macchiatos turned to maple spice lattes. The barista had been trying for weeks to flirt with him, but he was always too busy looking for the girl he saw to notice. He’s beginning to lose hope, thinking he really _had_ just hallucinated your face in some desperate try to find you again, and as his fingers wrap around his warm drink he finally decides he needs to stop this. No more looking for someone he thinks may have been you. He’s in a new town, with a new life. He needs to start living it.

With a sigh, he turns to leave and just barely gets his drink out of the way before someone comes barreling into him, immersed in her phone. He places a hand on her shoulder to steady her, the apologies partially past his lips as she looks up at him with worried eyes. The words die on Marcus’ tongue as disbelief, relief, awe, and affection all wash over him, very nearly overwhelming him. There you are, in all your glory, as beautiful as the last time he saw you years ago. Your brow scrunches in that absolutely adorable way it always has whenever you’re confused and Marcus melts, his heart pounding almost painfully in his chest. He opens his mouth to speak but you cut him off with a polite smile.

“I’m sorry,” you intone in that voice you usually reserved for work. Confusion is clouding your mind. There’s no way this is Marcus, your Marcus. The odds of just randomly bumping into him in this tiny coffee shop in one of the busiest cities in the whole of the United States after _years_ of lost contact just… they were so astronomically small you couldn’t even allow yourself to entertain them. “I really need to pay better attention when I’m walking in here. I’m sorry again!”

Marcus blinks as you move to pass him and head to the counter, confused. Do you really not recognize him? He had grown out his facial hair, sure, and the hair on his head, but surely that wasn’t enough for you to not recognize him? You had filled out since he last saw you, your face rounding with maturity as you grew up from that lanky high school girl to a beautiful, elegant woman. He didn’t think it possible but you were even more beautiful than the last time he saw you. You had grown into yourself, and you held yourself with such a professional confidence… well, you could be Wonder Woman as far as he was concerned. He gently grabs your shoulder, stopping you as you move past him and you freeze, looking back up at him. In a voice that is hardly a breath, he says your name and you feel as though you could cry, all the air in your lungs taken from you. That rich, beautiful voice and those soft, kind eyes. Had the universe really brought you Marcus? Your beautiful Marcus?

“Marcus…?” you whisper, hardly believing it as the rest of the coffee shop falls away around you. That smile, that beautiful sideways smile dances across his face and you know then that it is him. That it is the man you have been missing for years. Your Marcus.

“Hey there my beautiful girl,” he rasps, reaching up to brush a bit of hair from your face. “How’s my partner in crime?”

Your eyes prick with tears and you wrap your arms around his midsection, burying your face against his button down as you try not to break into sobs in the middle of a coffee shop. His arms wrap around you and you feel his lips against the top of your head. “M-M-Marcus,” you whimper against him, the hole in your heart hurting a little less as he holds you.

“I’m here, baby girl. I’m here.” He holds you there in his arms for as long as you need until you’re able to get your wits back about you. You slowly pull away, wiping your eyes as you beam up at him with that smile that could light up a room, and his heart stutters in his chest. “Let’s get you your drink, yeah?” He smiles, turning to guide you to the line you had all but forgotten about.

“What are you doing here?” You ask, desperately fighting the urge to reach out and take his hand. You have no idea if he’s still… available, as much as the thought of him not being so hurts your heart.

“I got a transfer to the art recovery unit here in D.C. Transferred all the way from LA.” He grins down at you, just like you remember. “Do you still drink your usual?”

“Do you still remember by usual?”

“How could I forget?” He looks to the barista, ordering the same coffee you had been ordering since senior year of high school and you almost don’t believe it. But then again, this _is_ Marcus. One of the most perfect humans you’ve over known. He pays for your drink before you even have time to protest before leading you over to wait for it. “So what are you up to these days? It’s been… way too long.”

You grimace at the thought and nod, folding your arms across yourself as you chew your lip. “Well, I graduated Summa Cum Laude and picked up a job with the EPA right out of college. That kept me here in the D.C. area ever since graduation. I’ve been working my way up through the ranks, and right now I work in the public outreach division. I help with budget management at the moment. Not ideal, but it’s a stepping stone.”

“I always knew you were gonna do big things. I always knew it.” You smile at him as you take your drink, heading to the door with him.

“What about you? Big things with you?” You sip at your drink as you cross the threshold together, Marcus holding the door for you.

“That’s a really long story that I don’t think I can finish before work.” He chuckles, but you notice it lacks the typical ring his laughter normally carried and you grow concerned.

“Well, what about after work? Are you free tonight? Maybe we could get dinner and just talk. We have a lot of catching up to do. Plus, it’s Friday, so I’m off tomorrow.”

His eyes light up in that way that you’ve always adored and he nods, stuffing his free hand in the pocket of his slacks to keep from reaching out for you. “How about dinner at my place? Seven?”

Your heart pounds in your chest as you nod back to him. “That sounds perfect. Let me see your phone.” Without question, he hands it over to you and you quickly type in your new contact info. “Text me the address, and I’ll be there at seven sharp.” He takes the phone back with a smile, his fingers brushing over yours and it sends a shock through your body. God, you had missed the feel of his skin. Marcus moves to speak when your phone suddenly goes off. You sigh as you glance at the screen, giving Marcus an apologetic glance. “It’s my boss. I need to go, I’m running late. I’ll see you tonight at seven, okay?”

Marcus’ shoulders fall almost imperceptibly but he nods and smiles at you, returning your little side hug as you tell him goodbye before turning on your heel to head to work. He watches you go for as long as he can see you, watching as you vanish into the crowd. Only this time, he knew he would see you again.

The hours seem to drag for both of you as you anxiously await the quitting bell. As soon as five rolls around, Marcus is out the door heading to the grocery store to pick up things for dinner. You had always loved his dad’s chicken carbonara, so he figures that that would be a safe bet for dinner. On his way home, your name flashes on his screen and he can’t help the little skip of excitement as he opens your message, asking if a white wine was okay to bring. Marcus would swear up and down that to some level, you were psychic. A quick yes gets a winky face in reply and he laughs at how adorable you still are, like no time has passed at all.

Back at your apartment, as soon as you get home, you feel like it’s prom all over again. What should you wear? Is this a casual thing? Is this a date? You pace your room, staring at the outfits laid out on your bed with all the indecision of a highschooler. “Fuck it,” you finally yell, tossing your hands up as you grab your only purple dress. It’s short, only coming to just above your knees, but you know it’s Marcus’ favorite color, so might as well play to your strengths. You slap on a little bit of makeup, just enough to bring out your eyes and hide the bags of a stressful day of work before slipping on your shoes and heading out the door, wine in hand.

You had to fight back the giggle at work when Marcus had sent you his address. He literally lived in the apartment complex next to your own, and somehow you had managed to go all this time and only have that one brief glance of him at the coffee shop. What a strange world you live in. Finally making it to his door after what seemed like the longest fifteen minute walk of your entire life, you knock and bounce on the balls of your feet. After a moment, Marcus opens the door with the biggest smile on his face and your heart damn near leaps from your chest. He looks amazing, still in his slacks and button down from work with the elbows rolled up and the first couple of buttons undone. “Hey,” he breathes out as his eyes rake your figure. “You look amazing. I feel underdressed!”

You giggle, your cheeks heating up as he steps aside, welcoming you in. “You don’t look too bad yourself,” you quip, looking around his apartment as you step in. “You know you literally live in the complex next door to mine?”

“No way.”

“Yes way! It’s a wonder we’ve never bumped into one another till now!” You chuckle as he takes the wine from you, urging you over to the counter around his kitchen. “It smells amazing. Is that… is that carbonara?”

He flashes you that beautifully charming grin and nods, moving to flip the chicken. “I remember how much you liked my dad’s. Now, mine can’t hold a candle to his, but I figured it would be close.” You could melt at how thoughtful he is, at how much he remembered even after all this time. “Dinner should be ready soon!” He smiles as he pours you a glass of the wine you brought and you thank him as you take the glass, taking a seat on a bar stool to watch him. He had really grown up, filling out in all the best ways. His jaw had gotten stronger and his back looked so nice in that button down as he moved around the kitchen, cooking. But he was still, without even a shadow of a doubt, your Marcus.

When dinner is finally done, he leads you to the table, serving you a heaping portion before serving himself, electing to sit next to you rather than across. As you dig in, he watches you, gauging your reaction and you can’t help the tiniest of moans that escapes you. It tastes just like his dad’s, and the memories of dinners at the Pikes’ house wash over you.

“I’ll take that means it’s good?”

“Your dad would be so proud of you, Marcus.” You flash him a smile and notice the slight flush that paints his cheeks under his scruff at your compliment as he tucks into his own plate. “So, let’s hear this long story, eh? I have all night now, since we live so close _and_ it’s the weekend tomorrow.” You grin before taking another bite and he returns it with a much weaker one.

“It’s… not the happiest of stories that brings me here. You sure you wanna hear it?” You nod, your face sombering.

“Spare me no detail, Marcus.”

He sighs, taking a large swig of his wine before he begins. He tells you everything. The anguish of missing you, the success of finishing his degree, his first job and all his successful cases, his first marriage, his engagement to Teressa… He spares no detail, just as you requested and by the end, you’re near tears, your hands firmly grasping his and your plates all but forgotten. “Marcus… Oh my Marcus, I’m so sorry that I wasn’t there for you. I… You… You shouldn’t have had to suffer through any of that.” He flashes you a sad smile, reaching up to gently wipe away a tear that threatened to spill from your eye.

“You had no way of knowing, it’s okay. It all needed to happen I guess, and in the end it brought me here, so I can’t complain too much, can I?” You couldn’t argue with that logic, but it upset you all the same. “What about you? Any dramatic love life? Failed marriages?” He leans in with a conspiratory smile. “Secret children?” He wiggles his eyebrows at you and you can’t help but laugh. That beautiful, musical laugh that had filled Marcus’ dreams since the day you left for school. To hear it again makes his heart soar.

“No, no marriages or secret kids or pining suitors. I… never dated after I left for school. Didn’t so much as download a dating app, much to my girlfriends’ disappointment. I have my cat and live a content life with the two of us.” You squeeze his hands gently. “I just couldn’t think of anyone after you, really. I didn’t want anyone else, if I’m being honest.” Looking up at him, you see a pensive look on his face, lost deep in thought.

“Really? No one? You never… tried to find someone?”

“Marcus, I left my heart in LA with you. I’ve been lonely, yeah, and sad, but I just couldn’t bring myself to try. I had no drive to, no desire. I knew what I wanted, Marcus. And it was nothing that could be found in D.C. Until now….” Your voice drifts off as you look from your hands back to his eyes, and he’s staring at you with that intensity that you’ve only ever seen from him. It’s the look that had you melting in his arms at senior prom when he kissed you under the light post of the parking lot.

Marcus stands, still holding your hands and urging you up as well. You stand before him, looking up into those beautiful eyes as his hand slowly comes to cup your cheek. Leaning into his touch, you give him a small smile that he returns before his eyes flick down to your lips then back to your eyes. You nod almost imperceptibly, but it’s enough. His lips are on yours, soft and gentle and _desperate_ and you melt against him, grabbing his button down in your fists as you lean against him. His other hand makes its way to your waist, holding you against him as your lips move with his more perfectly than you could ever imagine. Your hands make their way up around his neck, curling in the unruly locks at the nape of his neck that have always been so soft and he whimpers into the kiss, having missed your touch all these years, doing his best to replace it but never quite being able to.

Eventually, he breaks the kiss, both of you breathless as he rests his forehead against yours, his eyes closed. “I’ve missed you every day since the day you left for school,” he murmurs and the tears that have been threatening to spell over all night finally do. He feels the wetness against his hand, opening his eyes to see as he carefully wipes them away from your cheeks. His own eyes burn as he fights back shedding his own tears, voice growing thicker. “I had hoped when I got my transfer here that I might see you again. It felt like a pipe dream. I… I thought I had hallucinated you a few months ago the first time I saw you.” You open your eyes, glassy with tears to see his own shining as he fights them back.

“I had thought I had hallucinated you as well. I ran back when I realized it looked like you, but you were gone and my heart broke all over again. Marcus… My beautiful Marcus…” You drop your hand from his hair to brush his unruly bangs from his forehead before cupping his cheek. He leans into your touch and the tears finally spill over as he watches you, his aching heart slowly mending as he holds you to him. “Please… Please tell me this isn’t a dream. If it is, I never want to wake up. I’ve just gotten you back, I can’t lose you again.”

“I’m real, baby girl.” He leans in, brushing his nose against yours in the way he always did when you sat with him to watch the stars. “I’m real and I’m here and you’re in my arms again. And I’m not going anywhere without you ever again.”

A sob finally breaks from your lips as you pull yourself against him, hiding your face against his neck. The emotions are overwhelming. Years of pent up anguish and longing all washed away with a simple promise in the arms of the only man you have ever, and will ever love. You can feel Marcus shaking with you, crying his own yearning away as his arms wrap around you a little tighter.

Eventually, the tears abate and you pull back, cupping his face with both hands. “Marcus Pike, I have been waiting years to be able to say this to you again. I love you. I have always loved you. I will only ever love you.” The smile that splits his lips at your confession is bigger than any you have ever seen before before he leans in to crash his lips to your own in a fervent kiss, full of years of longing and pent up frustration.

“I love you, too, my beautiful princess,” he manages to mumble against your lips as he holds you against him. “I’m never letting you slip away again. You’re it for me.” He pulls away, watching your face with an air of desperation. “I… I should ask you officially. Will you be mine again? Can we pick up where we left off?”

You nearly start crying again at his request, nodding vehemently as a string of yeses pour from your lips. How could you deny him anything, the man you’ve longed to hold in your arms for so many years? How could you deny either of you the bliss you both crave. “Right where we left off, you holding me just like this, kissing me just like you do, saying my name over and over again. Right where we left off.”

His lips are back on yours, like he can’t get enough of you as he slowly stumbles back towards his bedroom with you following eagerly. “Stay tonight?” he mumbles against your lips, fingers digging into your hips as your hand fumbles with the buttons of his shirt.

“Marcus Pike, I’ll stay every night if you’ll have me.”

“Fuck it, move in with me. Let’s make up for lost time.” Your heart soars at his words as the back of his knees hit the mattress, pulling you down with him. He smiles up at you with that sunshine smile that you will never forget, caressing your face with the most tender of touches. Time stops as you watch his face, feel his heart pound under your hand. Your beautiful, perfect Marcus.

“Is this the start of our forever?” Your voice trembles with excitement and anticipation as the love of your life wraps his arms around your waist as you lay on top of him.

“It’s the start of our happily ever after,” he murmurs, pulling you in for yet another kiss, and you realize then that you are finally home. After years of longing and questioning where it is you truly belong, you finally realize that it is here, in Marcus’ arms. Here, you can finally rest. Here, you can finally live. Here, you are home. 


End file.
